Multimembership in Social Networks Miniconference Course

I took the liberty of adding a thread taken from SCoPE Moodle Mini Conference Course (FOC08) on Multimemebership.

Hi All

Sue asked, so this is just a quick attempt to explain the role that blogging plays for me in my managing of multimemberships.

As I mentioned in my first post, I sometimes feel like a conduit - so much information passes through me from my various networks and i want to make some of this 'stick'. One of the best ways of evaluating, processing and assimilating that information is quite simply to write about it! This process of writing about and adapting information to the priorities of my profession, helps me to really understand what's happening in the flow ( or great wave) of information and communication that goes on every day. It also helps me to then adapt and feed back into that flow ( I sometimes feel like I'm one of those Yahoo Pipes that aggregates feeds and makes them relevant to the readers who com from my profession (EFL ESL / Learning technology) and I hope add some value to it.

Once the information comes out in my blog, I then also get feedback on it from other bloggers / readers etc, so I again get the chance to reprocess and re-evaluate the information that's coming though my network.

I hope that makes sense.

Nik Peachey

I know I've really benefited from following Nik's blogs where he does all that evaluating, processing and assimilating! I kind of latch on to people like him. smile

I have another story and some questions related to managing multimembership and blogging.

The topic for this seminar came about from our experiences in the Facilitating Online Communities course (FOC08). Most of our communication in that course takes place on our individual blogs. We post our reflections and observations, and responses to questions that come up in the course on our personal blogs. We also wander around reading and posting comments on other course participants' blogs.

It sounds pretty straightforward except that there are 74 individuals/blogs on the course list. Also, some individuals have set up blogs specifically for this course while others are integrating course related posts into their existing blogs, so the course related posts need to be teased out from the rest. In addition, there is a course blog which is where Leigh the facilitator posts reminders about what we should be focusing on as well as reflections on the course itself.

At the beginning of the course there was a bit of a scramble to figure out how to manage it. Many of use were new the idea of organized communication through blogs. Do we each subscribe to every single blog through our rss reader? Is there a way we can organize these subscriptions as a group? How do we remember where we posted? How do we know if somebody responded to our comments left on other blogs? What's the best way to cross-reference posts and comments?

As I was thinking about these issues early on I found this gem from Nancy White's blog archives about multimembership. The title of the blog post is It's not me or the group, it's about multimembership.

I've learned this idea of multimembership from Etienne Wenger and see the management of multimembership as one of the key technological and social issues of the online world today. There is quite a bit of interesting technological work happening in this area, from identity standards, pushes for interoperability and tools that help us collect all our digital interactions so we can make sense of them across all the groups, networks and even casual online interactions we engage in.

The phrase "key technological and social issues" really stood out. I thought yikes! I have a lot to learn and I think I'd better hurry up and figure this stuff out. So here we are 12 weeks or so into the FOC08 and frankly I'm still struggling with the whole process. What are the tools that help us to collect our digital interactions? How can we best use these tools to remain engaged in these distributed but related conversations?


Hi Sylvia,

I'm really flattered that you follow my blogging. It's nice to know that someone does!

You ask at the end of your post "What are the tools that help us to collect our digital interactions?" and I think for me it really is the blogging part that helps me to collect.

I use loads of tools to pull in information:

* Yahoo groups and other list serves
* Various Nings and other Social networks
* Plurk and Twitter
* And an accumulated network of people that I've met or worked with via email

But of all these, it's the act of blogging that helps me 'collect' pull together and make sense of it all.

I've actually been doing a small experiement with Plurk and twitter that I'll post about when I have a bit more time.

best

Nik Peachey

Sylvia,
What drives me is not only the content, but the learning process. I can easily retrieve most of the information I publish under my name or username on the Internet via google search, so nothing is really lost. The question is how much am I willing to spend on sorting, narrowing down, slowing down and reflecting? Maybe there will come a time when I will no longer have the need to organize and save information. Maybe, I will become comfortable with the knowledge that the information is out there, or perhaps my whole way of thinking will transform into something else. Isn't there a better approach to online learning than storing information? I sometimes wonder whether technology is serving me or whether I am serving technological tools. What drives us to learn this way?

Nellie's comment about content versus learning process made me pause. I wonder if we do get too hung up on knowing that our contributions to conversations and records of our work are safe, searchable, archived, organized, etc. Is it a situation of because we can?

Does anybody remember this book from 1991?
Michael Schrage: Shared Minds: The New Technologies of Collaboration.
In that book Michael Schrage compares verbal communication with digital communication in shared spaces. He describes our utterances as little bubbles floating up into the sky and disappearing -- nothing recorded, nothing to build on but our memories of what was said. I could really relate to that book because it fit so closely with my own habits of recording and revisiting group interactions and decisions. I guess that's why I appreciate online interactions so much. I like to have a record of what was said.

But I've been thinking really hard about what it is I really do want. I don't think it's so much that I need a record of my own personal contributions (although I do like having that) but I'm more interested in easy access to the conversations and people I want to follow. For example, if I'm drawn to the topic of a blog post enough to add a comment, then I want to continue to track that conversation (on that blog and also references from other places to that blog post).

Here's a real life example of someone writing about this topic my own lack of skill in keeping track of it! I recall a few years back Leigh Blackall wrote about his decision to not get attached to his own digital content. The context of his post was online services where people store heaps of data and the risks of losing that information if the service shuts down. (Common concern these days with Ning, Facebook, etc)

I would now like to find that post because it's so relevant to Nellie's points, and I'm such a stickler for citing work! I recall at the time I read Leigh's post thinking WOW, how can he be so carefree about investing all that energy into something and not worry if it all runs down a drain. I wish I had been better equipped to somehow flag that blog post at the time!

Now Leigh might be joining us here this week so the real test will be...can he find that blog post! (or was it a post to the TALO group?) And if not, does he care? smile

Sylvia,
I think I'm the wrong person to talk to about being a stickler for citing work because I cite every single statement I make in my online doctoral class. You would probably love learning online at the University of Phoenix (except the tuition). I found interesting things about Leigh Blackall as I googled his name content vs process. For one thing, I found a blog referencing TALO (2006).
Online learning is allowing my thinking to be a lot more open and flexible. The ability to delete has transformed how I learn by allowing me to let go and say next... It all seems to fit in with my mindfulness meditation practice. You may want to join the free online course that is coming up.

Thank you for taking up this thread, Sylvia. It so much better to think out loud.

Hi Nellie

I think you hit the nail on the head here. You asked at the end of your posting

"Isn't there a better approach to online learning than storing information? I sometimes wonder whether technology is serving me or whether I am serving technological tools. What drives us to learn this way?"

I think what you are describing above, is NOT online learning. It's kind of a habit that we get into and something that gives us the illusion of being in control of all this information that's flying around. I think it's even useful, BUT it isn't learning!

I think learning is really about what you describe here:
"my whole way of thinking will transform into something else"

Learning is transformative. If it doesn't bring some impact on your life, change your way of thinking, develop your practice in some however microscopic way, then you probably haven't learned anything, you've basically shifted information from one place to another to make it more manageable. Nothing wrong with that, but it just isn't learning.

I think that's where the role of blogging, writing a wiki, producing a journal or writing and article of some kind is so important. Without that process of reflection, the information isn't really touching the sides (isn't transforming you) it just flows through from one place to the other.

So your question here really is the key: " The question is how much am I willing to spend on sorting, narrowing down, slowing down and reflecting?"

Here's where we get to the managing multi memberships bit. Personally I think it's probably better to let some information pass you by (after all as you said, you can probably find everything you need from a google search), but take the time to slow down and reflect on that part of it which can be transformative. Maybe we need to adopt more of a zen approach to this and start making sense of information (sorry about the pun) rather than just managing it.

I think that entering into this kind of dialogue is also a key part of that process too, many thanks to all for that.

best

Nik Peachey
Learning Technology Consultant, Writer, Trainer
http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/
http://quickshout.blogspot.com/
http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/